College students pitch business ideas at Dragons Den-style event

Students from Preston’s College participated in their very own Dragon’s Den challenge by developing and pitching business concepts to a local social enterprise.

Education Business Partnership (NW Communities) invited the first year Level 2 Business students at Preston’s College to develop business launch plans for its not for profit, Community Interest Company (CIC).

The students were working in groups for two weeks to develop an overall marketing proposal that included creating ideas for CIC’s logo, social media and website as well as costing up their plans. The project culminated in a formal Dragons Den-style group presentation at one of the College’s lecture theatres to a panel of CIC’s directors.

As well as having their logo design lead the branding for CIC, the winning team was gifted shopping vouchers. All other participants will receive a reference on their CVs, acknowledging their participation in the project.

Emma Woan, co-founder at CIC said: “We work in partnership with communities and local groups to help people, in particular young people, to improve their employment prospects through joint projects. We were thrilled to work with Preston’s College and put into practice what we preach, taking the role of an employer and helping young people gain experience.

“I hope it has gone some way in raising their aspirations and giving them a taste of the world of work through a positive employer encounter. The project brought great value to both parties as we were so impressed with the effort and professionalism of the students’ proposals that we are now planning to use one of the students’ designs for CIC’s logo.”

Kamran Ahmed, programme team leader at Preston’s College added: “We’re keen to deliver real work environment learning at Preston’s College to ensure our students are work-ready employees upon graduation.

“It was exciting to engage our first year students with a case study that helped them think with a business head in a realistic environment. I’m extremely pleased with students’ output, creative ideas and the excellent feedback we had from the client.”